Let House by the Cemetery’s horror come to you.
Created by the alliance between Rogga Johansson (guitar/bass, Dead Sun, Massacre, Megascavenger, Ribspreader, Paganizer, Revolting…) and Mike Hrubovcak (vocals, Imperial Crystalline Entombment, Azure Emote, ex-Monstrosity), joined by Thomas Ohlsson (drums, The Project Hate), the band is releasing their third album, Disturbing the Cenotaph, today via Pulverized Records.
New York Ripper is the first track to hit, and it wastes no time in unleashing blast beats, furious riffs, and beastly roars, as well as some catchy and slightly more moderate Old School patterns that would lend themselves perfectly to live performances. There are also some bloodier harmonics, but the song is mainly focused on its rhythm, as is Coffin Colony, which follows suit with the same vengeance and a similar tempo. Here too, the guitar doesn’t hesitate to offer us a few anguished touches while the solid base rolls over us under Mike‘s screams, who follows up with Island Of The Dead, which has a rather different approach made up of slower and more imposing passages allowing the development of intriguing leads. Depraved Unspeakable Acts follows with a fairly consistent rhythm, but a few slowdowns allow the trio to temper their aggression and get us headbanging before moving on to the macabre Massive Cadaver Resurrection, which weaves relatively disturbing tones before showing its true striking power. The track will easily satisfy fans of dirty riffs, but it ultimately gives way to Undead Apocalypse, which slows down to establish its dissonance and maintains this cadaverous feel to take advantage of a horrific sample, but the rhythm ignites again with Phantom Intrusions, which naturally follows suit. The track is quite effective, but the shrill harmonics give it an almost disturbing tone towards the end, leading into Burial Disturbance, where we find Swedish influences fully exploited in a brutal and uncompromising way, both in the leads and the rhythm. The vocals are also very prominent on this track, as are the Death/Doom influences on the heavy Lunatic Butcher, which closes the album with heavy riffs that resemble almost continuous mosh parts, and which will undoubtedly get the better of our necks.
House by the Cemetery unsurprisingly delivers excellent Death Metal with Disturbing the Cenotaph, drawing on numerous influences to give its tracks a consistently violent personality. There’s nothing to throw away!
85/100